The subject invention generally relates to a system for generating a chlorine-containing compound and, more specifically, to a system and method for generating a chlorine-containing compound for disinfecting and/or sanitizing a substrate.
Chlorine-containing compounds are well known in the art and are utilized in various industries due to their unique physical properties. Most commonly, chlorine-containing compounds are utilized in cleaning applications. For example, hospitals, restaurants, and even households often employ various chlorine-containing compounds for disinfecting, bleaching, whitening, deodorizing, and/or otherwise cleaning substrates.
For example, one chlorine-containing compound is sodium hypochlorite (NaClO), which is utilized as a powerful disinfecting agent and/or a bleaching agent. Sodium hypochlorite is commonly referred to as bleach when disposed in water to form an aqueous sodium hypochlorite solution. Another chlorine-containing compound is hypochlorous acid (HClO), which is similarly utilized as a disinfecting agent.
Hypochlorous acid is a particularly desirable disinfecting agent due to the effect of hypochlorous acid on bacteria and its lack of adverse health impacts on humans. In particular, when in the presence of bacteria, hypochlorous acid penetrates the bacteria and reacts with key enzymes to prevent normal respiration. Additionally, hypochlorous acid effectively eradicates pathogens other than bacteria. Accordingly, hypochlorous acid is often utilized as a disinfecting agent for surgical tools or hands of a surgeon in hospitals, and is similarly utilized as a disinfecting agent for surfaces utilized in the preparation of food by restaurants.
However, hypochlorous acid has an incredibly short half life and readily oxidizes. Other factors further contribute to the incredibly short half life of hypochlorous acid, such as temperature, exposure to ultraviolet light, etc. Moreover, hypochlorous acid partially dissociates into a hypochlorite anion (OCl−) when in an aqueous solution. As such, hypochlorous acid cannot be readily purchased and stored for any extended duration.
Accordingly, hypochlorous acid is generally generated in situ and utilized immediately upon being generated. However, conventional systems for generating hypochlorous acid in situ are large (and not portable) and very expensive. Moreover, conventional systems for generating hypochlorous acid in situ have outputs that are inconsistent. Specifically, conventional systems for generating hypochlorous acid in situ have outputs with varying pH, free available chlorine (FAC) and oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), which further limits repeatability and reproducibility of the conventional systems for generating hypochlorous acid in situ. Further, the free available chlorine (FAC) of the hypochlorous acid produced via conventional systems for generating hypochlorous acid is undesirably low, which limits the applications in which the hypochlorous acid may be utilized.